Relapse
by KateBishop
Summary: When the traces of Tesseract still left in Clint Barton place him under the flickering control of an unknown enemy, the Avengers must assemble to find out who, why, and how…before the mysterious "Eternity" wipes out the Midgard and Asgard. Takes place after the movie. Blackhawk * I don't own the Avengers :' *
1. In Which the Characters Are Introduced

Relapse

Chapter 1: In Which the Characters Are Introduced

Bullet fire peppered the ground around her, but the Black Widow easily dodged and avoided each projectile. She dove behind a car, taking temporary shelter behind the half-melted Chevy. She checked her Widow's Bite bracelets; everything was working well, and dove out again. She fired six shots, and six enemies went down. One last stretch…

The Widow leaped, somersaulting nimbly over the heads of her attackers and landed perfectly on her feet. She reached out a hand-and deftly grabbed the other team's flag.

"Team Widow wins again," she declared proudly. "Tony, I completely destroyed your 'amazing, unbeatable, indestructible' hostile resistance robots."

Tony Stark rolled his eyes. "Those were prototypes, Natasha. You weren't supposed to utterly annihilate them!"

Steve laughed. "But you do put on a decent show." Bruce nodded and laughed in agreement.

"Nice job, Tash! But next time, try to rely less on your weapons. We know you're the expert at hand to hand, but…" Clint advised. Tony rolled his eyes. Leave it to an assassin to critique another assassin.

"I do not see why you wished to test your prototypes on the Black Widow, Tony," stated T'challa, unsure of Stark's motives.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "If my stuff can't take out the best, it's not good enough." He snorted as he realized something. "And guess what?" He didn't wait for anyone to guess. "That's why I'm on top."

Thor looked puzzled, with confusion written all over his face. "Did you not tell the Widow NOT to annihilate these robots?"

Tony buried his forehead in his hands. "Whatever."

Steve, Bruce, and T'challa burst out laughing. "And the genius has no common sense!" gloated Bruce.

Tony stared daggers at the man. "I will kick you out of my house." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "…and you're a genius, too."

* * *

"Did she really annihilate them completely?" Clint asked Tony as the latter made micro-adjustments to the prototype he was now working on.

Stark shrugged. "She left one alone, so I could see what to improve. That's this one." He gestured to the robot in front of him. "She just locked it inside a defunct car."

Clint nodded his head in appreciation. "She's really good."

"Better than you?" Tony asked innocently.

"In some things. She's better at hand-to-hand. We're pretty evenly matched when it comes to shooting guns, but I'm a lot better than her with a bow. Of course."

"Of course," Tony mimicked.

Clint raised a fist. "Has anyone ever told you that you are the single most annoying creature on the planet?"

"Yes. Many times," Tony smirked.

Clint threw his hands in the air. "You're impossible."

"Thanks." Tony grinned as Clint left in exasperation.


	2. In Which Clint and Natasha Have a Moment

**Thanks to my (sadly few but still) amazing reviewers! Shout out to Jedi Kay-Kenobi, vampgirl1902, and DevinBourdain. You are appreciated! And sorry this took so long. I only write when the muses speak to me!**

* * *

Chapter 2: In Which Clint and Natasha Have a Moment (Which Is Quickly Ruined)

Clint sighed as he stepped into the elevator. Brilliant though he was, Tony Stark could really rub him the wrong way.

The archer sighed again. He knew it was futile to wish that the genius would change. But, a guy could dream, right? He pushed the button for the eighth floor, the one marked 'GYM 3.' Although the basement gym and the ground floor gym were more fully equipped, he didn't need the lap pool, or the basketball court, or the weight room.

No, Clint Barton needed the archery range.

* * *

He was surprised when the elevator stopped on floor number five. He was even more surprised when the door slid aside to reveal Natasha.

"Where are you going?" he asked curiously.

"Judging by the relaxed way you're holding your bow, plus the fact that you have armguards on, I'm guessing we're going to the same place," replied the redhead. Like Clint, Natasha didn't like using the bigger gyms where Cap, T'Challa, Thor, (and sparingly Tony or Bruce,) worked out. Instead, both S.H.I.E.L.D. agents preferred the small gym equipped only with targets, dummies, and a wrestling ring, (plus various sharp projectiles and guns.)

Clint shrugged. "Want to spar?" he offered. Inside, he knew she was getting the better end of the deal; she was just better than him in close combat and hand-to-hand.

Natasha smiled; she knew it too. "Definitely," she said seriously. "We can have a shooting match after I scrape you off the floor, if it makes you feel better," she added, in a tone that was almost, but not quite, sincere.

* * *

He dodged her first blow, somersaulting forward, then leaping up and ending behind her. He thrust a fist at her shoulder, then rapidly changed direction, now aiming at her side. But she was ready for him, and gracefully pirouetted out of his way and landed a blow on his kidney.

He sucked in air, not showing any of his pain, and dodged her follow-up, grabbing her wrist and flipping her over on to her back.

The Black Widow responded by sweeping her feet around and knocking his feet out from under him, following with a punch to his solar plexus that would have any untrained man fall to the ground, unable to breathe.

As it was, Hawkeye stumbled back, allowing the Black Widow to launch herself towards him for the final blow. The Russian flew through the air, and Hawkeye smiled.

He twisted out of the way, catching her wrists in one hand, while applying light pressure to a pressure point on her neck.

"I've been practicing, Romanoff," he breathed beside her ear. He felt her tense, ever so slightly, and added pressure to her throat. "Don't try," he said softly.

On an impulse, he pressed his mouth to her cheek. He felt her relax, and he released her hands. She wrapped her arms around him, and he held her close. They stayed like that for a long time.

Of course, something so perfect had to be interrupted.

Tony Stark cleared his throat. "Umm, Clint?" he said awkwardly.

Quickly, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents broke apart. "What is it, Stark?" Clint asked. If looks could kill, Anthony Edward Stark would be stone cold right now.

Tony was frozen, suddenly comprehending the scene that had just taken place. "Whoa. You and her- you were hugging- and-"

"Shut it, Stark," Natasha said brusquely. If she was embarrassed at all, she hid it well. She pointed a finger threateningly at the genius. "Say anything, to anyone, you will be dead." She marched out of the gym alone.

Tony turned to Clint, his jaw hanging low. "When did that start?" he asked in awe.


	3. In Which Tony Gives Clint Some Advice

**On Friday July 20, I got 134 views on this story. Thanks so much to everyone (in over 20 countries) who read! (Just imagine what it would be like if you all reviewed…) Thanks to Genevieve Kelly, PercyJacksonTheAwesome, and Acrylate for reviewing!**

**And thanks to PercyJacksonTheAwesome for reminding me: T'Challa is a comic book Avenger also known as the Black Panther. I know he's not in the movie, but I like his character too much to not include him.**

**Enjoy Chapter 3!**

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Chapter 3: In Which Tony Gives Clint Some Advice

Clint mumbled something incoherent as Tony tried in vain to tug him away.

"What?" asked Tony.

"I'm going to kill you, Stark…very slowly," the archer repeated.

The genius rolled his eyes. "Okay, Legolas. You're going to kill me. Now can you explain to me what just happened here?"

Now it was Clint's turn to roll his eyes. "I hugged her. What's wrong with that?"

Tony grinned. "Two assassins, hugging in the middle of trying to kill each other. Oh, there's nothing wrong with that."

Clint practically growled at the man. "How much?"

Tony looked confused. "How much what?"

"How much do you want me to pay you? So that you won't tell anyone about me and Natasha?"

Stark visibly shuddered. "You don't need to pay me anything. That Russian bi- um, beauty- scares me enough."

"Then what do you want?"

Tony grinned evilly. "I want to give you some advice."

* * *

"Lesson One," Tony began, "is do not let her know you're interested. Unfortunately, you have already blown Lesson One out of the water with your…rather obvious display of emotion towards Ms. Romanoff. Which I happen to have recorded and made into a commemorative disk to show on your wedding day. But that is beside the point," he added as Clint gave him a death glare.

"Lesson Two: If she asks you how you're feeling say 'Fine,' then walk off and act all un-fine. Then when she begs you to tell her, admit your feelings, tell her you love her, then ask her to marry you. I'll even provide the commemorative disk of your first display of affection!"

The playboy dodged Clint's fist, and continued:

Lesson Three. Take her on dates with all your friends and their girlfriends so that she knows them all. A girlfriend or wife who does not know your friends is bad news. Plus, who will she give all of the commemorative DVD's to?"

"Cut the crap, Stark," Clint said angrily. "This stuff sounds like you're getting it from a girl's guide to dating, but changing it for a guy."

Tony dropped the copy of _A Girl's Gide To Dating_ that had been hidden behind his back. It landed solidly in the trashcan with a loud thump.

"Fine," Tony sighed dramatically. "That leaves Lesson Four."

"Which is?"

"Take her somewhere fun, where you can bond in a non-spy, non-hero, anti-bad guy environment."

Clint's face screwed up in confusion.

Tony face-palmed. "Take her to an amusement park."

And eventually, Clint had accepted Tony's faultless logic. After hunting down at least seventeen copies of the commemorative disk, Clint resolved to ask Natasha to go with him on a one day vacation to FunLand.

"Um, Natasha?"

Why was this suddenly so difficult for him?

"I was…well, I was wondering if…maybe…you might like to take a day off…maybe go to FunLand with me?" Mentally, he cursed himself. She so easy to work with, yet asking her on a…date…was incredibly difficult.

Behind his back, he crossed his fingers.

**Woah, a cliff-hanger! Fantastic, right? You all probably think you know what she's going to say...but is she? Who knows? *evil villain laugh* But chapter four is written already...it all depends on the reviews.**

**So please R&R! :)**


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